Stevie Kenarban
Stevie Kenarban, portrayed by Craig Lamar Traylor, is Malcolm's best friend who is in his genius class with him. He is disabled, with a missing lung and asthma, which causes him to talk very slowly and take a deep breath every 1-3 words he says. Biography Unlike Malcolm, Stevie is carefree and humble about his intellectual gift. When Stevie first meets Malcolm in the "Pilot", where they are in the same accelerated class through middle school and most of high school. They originally met on a play date and took a liking to each other through a mutual interest in comic books. Stevie is a wheelchair user and has severe asthma and only one lung; as a result, he speaks softly and can only say one or two words on each breath. However, despite these handicaps, Stevie seems to be a normal teenager and does not let his physical disadvantages keep him from having a relatively normal life and even uses his handicap to his advantage. He is seen in several episodes milking his handicap status to get favors from others, guilt his parents into buying him things, flirt with girls, and even pulling pranks or getting other kids in trouble. It has also been mentioned in many episodes that due to societal obligations, nobody is allowed to bully Stevie. (Pilot, Bully, Malcolm Films Reese, Reese vs. Stevie) So, although the school he goes to is teeming with bullies that target pretty much everyone, especially Krelboynes, Stevie is immune because he's in a wheelchair. Although other kids don't bully Stevie, Malcolm gets a pass for reasons unexplained. The reason would probably be either because he's his best friend or he's also a Krelboyne. Malcolm only goes as far as to verbally abuse him, has shown to make threats to physically harm him when he's angry, for instance: threatening to push him down the stairs when Stevie made fun of him for Caroline Miller allegedly "coming onto him" in the episode Red Dress. However, this whole conversation may very well have just been in good fun. Reese has the biggest amount of conflict against Stevie's no bullying rule, feeling angry with the fact that he can't hit him. In Reese vs. Stevie, Reese became so annoyed with his rule, that he decided to "level the playing field" by completely numbing his lower body, to the point where he became the equivalent of paralyzed. However, at the same time, Stevie nicked from a medical institute a robotic machine that caused him to be able to walk and be the equivalent of a fully able-bodied person, meaning that he switched the roles and beat Reese senseless. In the earlier episode Dinner Out, Reese was able to shamelessly punch Stevie multiple times at the dinner table, as Stevie consented to playing the "circle game" with Reese and Malcolm. Personality Stevie is a kid genius of exceptionally gifted intellect, placing him in the Krelboyne class and making him reach into the ballpark of being as smart as Malcolm. Although he is generally a happy and calm boy, being in a wheelchair makes life harder for him to get through. Stevie rarely ever complains about being in the state he's in, nor does he let it get in his way, but this is mostly because he's spent his whole life like this and is used to it. The only things that ever do lead him to mention his unfortunate disadvantage is if someone else complains about how unlucky they are, when they are in a way better set of circumstances than he is. Another outcome of Stevie being disabled is that his parents are twice as concerned for his well-being and overprotect him, making him a bubble boy. Due to the events of his mother leaving him later in the series, this character trait would slowly come to be abandoned. Stevie has a sarcastic side, has outsmarted Malcolm and Reese numerous times, and has even managed to get the better of Reese physically on occasion. He has been shown to be a far stronger person than both his parents (even his father admitted he was a weak small man). Relationships Friends *'Malcolm Wilkerson' - Malcolm and Stevie are best friends in the series. In the Pilot episode, Stevie had no friends and so Lois forced Malcolm to go to Stevie's house and play with him. Although Malcolm was uninterested at first, they soon started to bond a lot and become really good friends. Not long afterwards, Malcolm was sent to the Krelboyne class, where Stevie became his classmate. The two of them were exceptionally gifted when it came to intelligence, which was also a reason for them to become friends. Stevie likes Malcolm for bringing fun into his life, which he needs because he is treated like a bubble boy. (Sleepover, Carnival) Malcolm likes Stevie because ever since he became a Krelboyne, he has been one of the only students to respect him. In later episodes, there would be other Krelboynes who would be friends with them, such as Lloyd, Dabney, Kevin, etc. Malcolm never shows any disrespect toward Stevie for being crippled and never makes any rude comments about it, even as a joke. However, all this ignoring his disabilities makes him a bit unintentionally insensitive to it. There have been moments where Malcolm forgets how much Stevie goes through, when he's in this state. For example: In the episode "Polly in the Middle", Malcolm talked to Stevie about how stupid Dewey was for believing in a lucky shirt, to which Stevie responded, "You're asking me about luck?". One of the main conflicts Malcolm and Stevie's friendship started to become prevalent in season 4. The problem here is that Malcolm only cares about himself. Stevie has shown to be annoyed with this, especially when Malcolm complains about his own personal problems because he is literally a paraplegic with asthma. Episodes such as (Future Malcolm, Humilithon, and Malcolm Dates a Family) are good examples of this. Malcolm's selfishness around Stevie is born of his own egotism, a recurring character flaw with Malcolm. However, overtime, Stevie has grown to stop caring about Malcolm's egotism and just kind of see it as part of his personality. In the episode "Stevie in the Hospital", Stevie was in the hospital for a little more than a month and was unable to move around much for a long time. Malcolm visited Stevie and without even letting Stevie talk to him, Malcolm unleashed a bunch of cruel comments to him, telling him that he's just begging for attention by being in the hospital and tried to make him look like the bad guy. Instead of getting even slightly angry, Stevie just said to the kid in the hospital bed next to him. "I told you he would come." Stevie is a really nice, patient, loyal, and forgiving person for tolerating Malcolm's obnoxious personality like this and seeing that he's a human being underneath. This is a very friendly trait of his that no other character had. By the events of the last episode "Graduation", all of the other Krelboynes had left Malcolm and there were absolutely no other kids in the school who liked him. All except for Stevie Kenarban, who proved to be Malcolm's only friend. *'Dabney Hooper': One of Stevie's other friends. *'Lloyd': Another of Stevie's friends. *'Lois Wilkerson': Malcolm's mother who likes and respects Stevie. In Stupid Girl, she mentions how much she appreciates the fact that he respects her and finds it refreshing to not have a child who behaves badly. Enemies *'Reese Wilkerson': Stevie's main enemy and bully. He seems to understand that he can't hit Stevie as hitting someone in a wheelchair is off limits. Stevie has shown to have gotten the upper hand on Reese on a few occasions. *'Dave Spath': Stevie's other bully who appeared in Pilot. He took advantage of Spath's mistake by falling off the wheelchair and making everyone in their school mad at him for having hit a handicapped. Family *'Abe Kenarban' - Stevie's loving father and an overbearing bubble parent in the first few seasons. Abe Kenarban and his wife, Kitty both pretty much had the same personality and interactions with Stevie until the episode "Goodbye Kitty", where Kitty left the family. Abe was proven to be a horrible, nervous wreck who had no idea how to raise his son on his own. He explained how he lied to Stevie, saying that she went on a month-long business trip and had no plans on how to tell Stevie the real news when the real day came. Reese told Stevie the news without warning, which completely freaked both of them out. After they had gotten over the loss of Kitty, Abe was more of a normal father to Stevie. He never overprotected him at all and just treated him like he was really proud to be his father. *'Kitty Kenarban' - Stevie's overbearing bubble mother. Kitty is a completely uptight mother who protects Stevie from doing anything potentially dangerous or out of the ordinary and completely freaks whenever Stevie goes missing for even a little while. (Sleepover, Carnival). Kitty has shown to feel repressed by being a mother in the episode "Dinner Out", where a conversation with Lois made her realize she is a complete pushover, not much different than Abe and Stevie. Lois convinced Kitty to stand up to her family and make things go her way. However, she went overboard with this and just started screaming at everyone in the family and going insane. She was calmed down and set back to normal again in her next appearance, but this side of her personality was not forgotten. In "Goodbye Kitty", Abe admitted that Kitty had officially left the family to live on her own. She felt that her life as a mother was holding her down and she ran away to act like the wild and insane, party girl that she never got to be. The second Stevie heard about this, he was paralyzed in shock and for almost the rest of the entire season, Stevie was so overwhelmed with depression that he had completely stopped talking. When he did start talking again, he would always mention how much he missed his mom. Stevie eventually got over this and became his normal self again. However, after a while, Kitty would come back to the family in the episode "Kitty's Back". Kitty said that she missed her son and husband very much and explained that she had officially gotten all the crazy rebelliousness out of her system and was ready to go back to normal again. Stevie and Abe both very wrongfully forgive her for what she did and let her come back into the family again. They said that they didn't care about the past and were just happy to have her back in their lives again. However, secretly they hadn't forgiven her and manipulated her using Lois into making Kitty think she was forgiven so they could vent out their anger against her and was obviously never mad at Lois for punishing Kitty. Episode Appearances *Pilot *Home Alone 4 *Shame *Malcolm Babysits *Sleepover *Francis Escapes *Krelboyne Picnic *Funeral *Cheerleader *Rollerskates *The Bots and the Bees *Lois VS Evil *Halloween Approximately *Dinner Out *Convention *High School Play *Bully *Old Mrs. Old *Krelboyne Girl *Hal Quits *Surgery *Tutoring Reese *Carnival *Houseboat *Emancipation *Malcolm's Girlfriend *Poker *Company Picnic Part 1 (Mentioned) *Cynthia's Back *Hal Coaches *Poker #2 *Jury Duty *Cliques *Humilithon *Stupid Girl *Forwards Backwards *Forbidden Girlfriend *Malcolm Holds His Tongue *Hal's Friend *Academic Octathalon *Reese's Party (Mentioned) *Clip Show #2 (Flashback) *Future Malcolm *Watching The Baby *Goodbye Kitty *Malcolm Films Reese *Dirty Magazine *Malcolm Dates a Family *Polly in the Middle *Experiment *Dewey's Special Class *Kitty's Back *Malcolm's Car *Dewey's Opera *Ida Loses a Leg *Reese vs. Stevie *Stevie in the Hospital *Graduation Trivia *Stevie was originally going to be a one-time character, who only appeared in the Pilot episode. *Stevie's actor, Craig Lamar Traylor, is not actually in a wheelchair, nor does he have asthma. The only disorder he does have is astigmatism, so he does wear glasses. *Stevie is the only Krelboyne friend of Malcolm's who has stayed with him throughout the entire series. Lloyd, Kevin, and Dabney stopped appearing after Season 4, as well as Cynthia, who also didn't start appearing until the Season 2 episode Krelboyne Girl. *One time when Malcolm and Reese got Ed's old computer, he points out that Ed never erased everything on the hard drive and wiped the computer's memory clean. Stevie remarks that no one in general does. He was even disgusted alongside the two boys when he learns about Ed's secret affairs in Hal Coaches. Category:Characters Category:Recurring Characters Category:Krelboynes Category:Male Category:Kenarban Family Category:Main Cast